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Toast, Asbury Park’s downtown breakfast spot [shown above], will host their first charity 5k run/walk Saturday. The event ends with a pancake after party in Kennedy Park.

Restaurant owner Amy Russo hoped to have at least 100 runners sign up to run this first year. By the close of registration Friday morning, 140 runners preregistered for the event, she said. Despite the rain, she plans for at least 50 more people to register on-site tomorrow.

In addition to pancakes, runners will receive a “swag bag” filled with a water bottle, tube of Chapstick and other running-related items. Local businesses also contributed to the contents. Some 100 runners will get a “buy-one-get-one free” taco card from Mogo, Asbury’s Korean taco pop-up stand located on the boardwalk, and sunglasses from Sweet Joey’s retail store on Bangs Avenue. The top three male and female finishers will receive trophies and gift certificates to area restaurants. Moonstruck, Ivan and Andy’s Prime, The Brickwall, Confections of a Rock Star and Taka are on the short list of contributors.

“It’s a total community event,” Russo said.

All of the race proceeds benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Global Camps Africa. Russo and Toast manager Chris Hartsgrove chose the Micheal J. Fox foundations because they both have grandparents that suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

Throughout the registration process, Russo discovered more and more people were driven to participate in the race because they have friends and family members afflicted with the disease.

“It’s amazing how many people know people affected by Parkinson’s disease in the community, which is awful and a bizarre connection,” she said. “It’s a connection you don’t want to have — but  it’s a connection.”

The funds raised for Global Camps Africa will sponsor a trip for Lisa Brodrick, a yoga instructor and 13-year Asbury Park school teacher, to travel to Global Camps Africa’s Camp Sizanani in South Africa. There, she will provide Radiant Child Yoga teacher training to the camp counselors. Radiant Child Yoga is an international program that provides yoga instructors with ways to teach children yoga and work with them to be more conscious of their inner selves, according to their website. 

Brodrick’s status as a  longstanding member of the Asbury Park community helped encourage runners to register for the event, Russo said.

Russo also owns Toast’s Montclair location. In addition to running a business, she had always wanted to find a way to give back. The process has been “time consuming but not difficult, and it’s worth it,” she said. “I’m really happy with it. I can’t wait until next year, it’s going to be so much easier.”

Check-in opens at 7 a.m. in Bradley Park at the corner of Fifth and Ocean avenues in Asbury Park. T-shirts will be given to the first 150 registered runners. Race day check-in and registration starts at 7 a.m. and costs $30 per person.

The race route will be the same U.S. Track and Field certified double-loop course as the Asbury Park 5k, which begins and ends in Bradley Park opposite Convention Hall at the corner of Sunset and Ocean avenues. Race start time is 8:30 a.m.

Following the race, runners can walk to Kennedy Park [located at the corner of Cookman and Grand avenues] for the pancake after party from 9 to 11 a.m. The area will be tented. Local musician Sam Sims is scheduled to play live music, along with other area musicians.

Runners will eat pancakes gratis. Those who want to partake in the pancake after party without first running 3.1 miles will have to pay $5, all of which will be donated to charity.

Toast is located at 516 Cookman Ave. in Asbury Park.

For more information about Global Camps Africa, visit their website, or contact Lisa Brodrick at lbrodrick@gmail.com. For more information about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, visit their website.

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